Antics and Advice


"You three, meet me at the hot springs in three days," Jiraiya told Naruto, Shikamaru, and Hinata. They nodded and the rest of them left, leaving Jiraiya and the Hokage alone in the basement.

The group was silent as they left the Hokage's tower. The crowd from earlier had finally dispersed, and only a few people stared at them.

Sakura was still reeling from everything they'd been told, and by the looks of it, Sasuke and Naruto were doing the same. Shikamaru and Hinata looked contemplative, and Kakashi hadn't even pulled out a book.

"So what now?" Naruto asked.

"The Hokage said rest," Sakura replied quietly. "And I think I used too much chakra yesterday."

"How can you tell?" Kakashi inspected her closely.

"It burns when I use it, and it feels like there's too much, like when I first got the seal."

"Your chakra coils are overstressed and overexpanded again, then. You were leaking a significant amount of chakra during the preliminaries, so that makes sense."

Sakura felt her face flush and steadfastly avoided looking at Hinata.

Suddenly, there was a huge commotion coming from down the street.

"BOSS!"

"NARUTO!"

Three girls, five boys, and one dog slammed directly into Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto, all shouting at them and each other at once.

Sasuke stumbled and sat down as Akio slammed into him, clinging to his shirt and bawling. Hime started licking his face furiously.

Sakura knelt to the ground as Akari and Touma both hugged her tightly. She hugged them back just as hard. Naruto had disappeared underneath a mass of limbs, topped by Reo and Konohamaru shouting at each other at the top of their lungs.

"You're back!" "And alive!" "See! Naruto likes me better, you idiot!" "Nuh-uh, boss likes me the best!" "Did you get hurt?" "Was it scary?" "Are you chūnin now?"

Kakashi waded into the dogpile of children and picked Naruto up by his ankle. "You're very popular with the children," he said, his eye twinkling.

All the blood was rushing to Naruto's head, making him turn an interesting shade of purple. "Put me down, sensei!"

"Yeah, put him down!" Reo and Konohamaru both turned to Kakashi and gave him equally threatening glares. "You can't just pick up the boss like that!"

"You two knocked me over!" Naruto pointed at them with the hand not currently swinging at Kakashi. He glared. "You're just as bad!"

Both boys looked highly unrepentant.

Ichika, Udon, and Moegi stood up, brushed themselves off, scrubbed their tears, then reattached themselves to the rest of Naruto's limbs.

Hinata, who was standing near Shikamaru, giggled. Shikamaru just looked bored.

Kakashi detached the children again and rotated Naruto to set him unsteadily on his feet. Then, he smiled. "Why don't you all go pick an empty training ground to go play? We have a few days off."

"Really?! Come on, Naruto!" Reo and Konohamaru started tugging on his arms, making him stagger dizzily.

"Aren't you all supposed to be in the academy or something today?" Sasuke said grumpily, attempting to stand up. His irritated demeanor was slightly lessened by the fact he was hugging Akio with one arm and scratching Hime behind the ears with the other.

(Akio was beaming.)

"The academy is boring," Reo informed Sasuke. "And Ko-chan said he was gonna go look for you, so we followed him."

"I told you to quit calling me Ko-chan!" Konohamaru let go of Naruto and kicked Reo in the knee. Reo snickered and retaliated by grabbing his scarf and yanking on it, and soon the two were wrestling on the ground.

Akari sighed.

"I think I can talk to Iruka about allowing you all one day off," Kakashi said, sounding amused.

A few seconds later, Konohamaru stood with one foot on the much smaller Reo's back, looking smug. Reo was fuming.

"Alright, boss," Konohamaru said. "Where to?"

Naruto looked at Sakura, almost guiltily. "Um, Sakura… D'you think we could use the training yard at your house?"

"Of course we can. I don't know if I have enough food, though."

"We can stop at the market on the way there," Sasuke said. "You need more eggs and vegetables anyway."

Sakura flushed. "I- um. Okay."

She hadn't seen Sasuke cook breakfast that morning, but now the image wouldn't leave her alone.

He'd cooked their meals in the forest with his fire jutsu, so it shouldn't feel that strange. But there was something distinctly different about Sasuke cooking food in her kitchen.

In an attempt to distract herself, Sakura turned to Shikamaru and Hinata. "Are you both coming? There's more than enough room, if you want to stay a while. It's a small house, but there's a large training area."

"Please?" Naruto begged, turning on the full force of his bright blue puppy eyes.

Hinata turned beet red and nodded, looking down at the ground. "I can't stay long, because my family is expecting me at dinner. But I'd like to go."

Shikamaru looked as if he was actually considering it. "Can I bring Chōji?"

"Of course."

Shikamaru nodded, then turned and started meandering toward the hospital. "We'll meet you there, then."

Sakura wondered if he'd be able to find it, but she wasn't too worried. It was labeled well.

The whole group started walking toward the Haruno compound. Sasuke stopped at a few market booths on the way, buying a significant amount of meat, eggs, tomatoes, and other vegetables. Akio and Hime were glued to his side the entire time, helping him carry everything (and, in Hime's case, begging for fresh cuts of meat).

Ichika, Reo, and Konohamaru chattered loudly at Naruto as they walked, and he regaled them with all of the fights that had happened. Udon and Moegi had chosen to follow them by walking next to Hinata.

Touma and Akari held Sakura's hands as she walked. They didn't once let go.

Sakura was pretty sure they'd gotten taller - Touma's head was now at her chin, being the tallest of the group. (Reo was still the shortest, but from what she could tell, he'd finally grown past her elbow.)

"Where's your sword?" Touma asked her quietly.

Sakura grinned. "On my back."

He squinted at her suspiciously, then peered behind her back. "No, it's not."

Sakura resisted the urge to snicker and then met Kakashi's gaze. He winked at her.

She knew what to do.

"Hmmm," she said thoughtfully. "Then I probably forgot it somewhere." She shrugged.

Touma huffed. "Shinobi can't just forget their weapons. And it's too big to just leave anywhere."

Sakura widened her eyes in a look she hoped was innocent. "But last time I saw it, it was about as big as a kitchen knife. Are you sure you're talking about the same sword?"

Touma stopped dead and stared at her like she'd gone crazy. "It's huge!" He pulled his hand away to gesture wildly. "Like, at least twice as big as this!" He held his hands as far apart as he could.

Sakura's lips twitched. Somehow, she managed to keep a straight face. "Touma, are you sure you're okay?" She felt his forehead.

Touma looked ready to explode. "Are you serious?!"

Next to her, Akari giggled. Sakura smiled at her. "What do you think?"

"I think Touma might be going a little crazy," Akari agreed, mischief shining in her eyes.

"I'm sure Sakura's sword was quite small the last time I saw it, Touma," Kakashi added mildly. "Nothing like what you're describing."

Touma threw his hands up into the air with an annoyed huff. "Shinobi are insane," he muttered, with feeling.

"But you want to be one, right?" Sakura asked, stopping in front of the Haruno gate. She let go of Akari's hand and unlocked the gate to let the children through. She made a mental note to fix it - the gate hadn't been used in so long that it was overgrown with vines since she usually just jumped over the walls.

"Of course I want to be a shinobi!"

"Then you'll have to work on your observation skills," Sakura grinned at him, reaching behind her back to tuck her shirt behind the harness so the sword didn't rip through it. Then, she released the seal, and the entire length of Kubikiribōchō expanded behind her.

Touma's eyes were comically huge.

"Wait, how?! SAKURA, GET BACK HERE AND TELL ME!"

Sakura laughed as she ran toward her house and jumped on the roof, escaping Touma to enter through a window on the second floor.

Then, she activated the seal on her sword again, hid it in a cupboard in the kitchen downstairs, and calmly walked to the front of the house to let in the rest of the group through the front door.

"Welcome to the Haruno Complex," she said as they entered.

In the backyard, Touma yelled in frustration.

At the back of the group, Hinata met her eyes and giggled.

Sakura's heart felt like it was going to overflow with happiness, and she reveled in it.


Akio and Hime had followed Sasuke into the kitchen. The rest of the children went outside through the back door to play ninja with Naruto and Hinata, who Sakura was intentionally leaving alone for a while.

Touma, however, barged inside to glare at Sakura, looking her up and down. "Where is it?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow, doing her best to imitate Kakashi. "I told you already, I'm pretty sure I just forgot it somewhere."

Touma spluttered.

Behind him, Sasuke snorted as he and Akio unloaded the groceries.

"You might check the kitchen cupboards," Sakura told Touma. "I could've put it there."

"It wouldn't fit!" Touma went around her back and poked it, trying to find the sword. Sakura let him. She tried to hide her snicker, but Touma just glared at her more.

"It really is just like a kitchen knife, though. Sometimes I even use it to cut meat." Giant snake meat, that was.

Touma shot her an annoyed glare and turned around to the kitchen, muttering to himself. He started opening and closing doors and then gave a victorious yell. "Found it! But it's tiny! And it's stuck!"

Sakura laughed and took the sword from the cupboard, clipping it back into her harness. "Shhh," she held a finger to her lips and winked at Touma.

He crossed his arms with a glare. "Shinobi are annoying."

"So be annoying," Sasuke told him. He looked up from where he was cutting vegetables and gave Touma a pointed look. "You're going to need to be, in a fight."

Touma suddenly sounded nervous. "I used to be good at fighting. But now…"

"It's different when you're fighting kids who've been training their whole lives," Akio added. He stepped closer to Sasuke. "It's a lot scarier. And it hurts more."

Sakura and Sasuke met each other's eyes above the boys' heads.

"You don't have to be a shinobi, Akio. You can be a veterinarian, or something else."

"No," Akio said fiercely, gripping onto Sasuke's arm. Hime barked once in agreement. "Shinobi saved us, and I want to save other people, too."

Touma's eyes flashed. "We just need to get better at fighting."

"Not necessarily," Sasuke said. "You can focus on defense, or speed, or reconnaissance, even as shinobi. Naruto, Sakura, and I are all fighters, but teams need trackers and spies, too." His hand clenched around the knife. "And medics."

"That's why the graduation exam is to make two clones," Sakura added. "So if you're on a mission and you're not as strong as your opponent, you can get away."

"I bet you never had to use a clone to run away," Touma muttered angrily.

"I have," Sakura told him. Touma looked up at her in surprise. "And if I hadn't, I might've died."

His expression hardened. He turned around and stalked outside without saying a word.

"Touma was worried about you," Akio said quietly. "We all were."

"We're here now," Sasuke replied. "You don't need to be worried anymore."

Akio fell silent as he watched Sasuke finish cutting the food.

"Do you think I could be a medic-nin?" Akio asked in a very small voice.

"If you practice enough," Sasuke told him, arranging the cut vegetables on a plate. "Then yes." He gave Akio a small smile.

Sakura took the plate and excused herself quietly to go outside.

The only time she could remember Sasuke smiling like that was during their mission in Otaki.